Burns was first elected to the Commons in 1987, was a Health Minister in the Major Government, returned to the Department under the Coalition, and went to Transport with his old friend Patrick McLoughlin.

No Minister serves forever, and I suspect that Burns will have gazed ahead to the coming reshuffle, looked sideways at the Deputy Speaker post…and the rest is history, or rather the present.

He’s a popular chap, is Burns, and must stand a chance in the contest triggered by the resignation from the post of Nigel Evans. Nadine Dorries is also a contender.

Other candidates include Eleanor Laing and Brian Binley. Burns’s relationship with the Speaker is too well known to repeat here. They would be the ultimate odd couple.